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SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: ATONEMENT / AT-ONE-MENT

We all make mistakes ... big and small. Perhaps when we are all Buddhas, we will be beyond bad choices and harmful acts ... but now we are each just fallible human beings, Bodhisattvas living in this tricky Saha world, hopefully doing the best we can. Human beings will make mistakes.

However, what we do with those mistakes ... whether we learn from them, seek not to repeat them, and repair the damage we have created ... makes all the difference in the world.

What's more ... we ARE Buddha too, right now and all along. Thus, even amid all our big and small mistakes ... there is no mistake, nor could there be.

Of course, to live from only one such perspective ... that there are mistakes, or that there is never any mistake ... would be a BIG MISTAKE! Fortunately, we BUDDHA-NOT-BUDDHAS can live by knowing life as each at once ... with no mistake or harm possible, yet repairing what needs to be repaired as best we can.

Thus, we ATONE. Thus, All is At-ONE.

Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows at this link. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 15 to 20 minutes is recommended.

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: ATONEMENT / AT-ONE-MENT

Would you say that our practice makes us see our mistakes more clearly? That when we are less attached to our ego, that we are more conscious of our actions? I'm not so concerned with the mistakes that I make that I'm aware of, that I can try to atone for and learn from. But what of the other kind? The mistakes you can't see or don't want to see. The evil you do without knowing it?

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: ATONEMENT / AT-ONE-MENT

Originally Posted by Omoi Otoshi

Would you say that our practice makes us see our mistakes more clearly? That when we are less attached to our ego, that we are more conscious of our actions? I'm not so concerned with the mistakes that I make that I'm aware of, that I can try to atone for and learn from. But what of the other kind? The mistakes you can't see or don't want to see. The evil you do without knowing it?

I would say that this Practice allows us great insight into the human mind, and greater sensitivity to the greed, anger, ignorance and other workings of Mara and the trickster 'self' which so often drive us and our fellow human beings. Yes, we become more conscious of our right actions and wrong (harmful) actions and the effects of each.

Yet, alas, until we are each and all flawless Buddhas, I am afraid that we are always open to the possibility of making mistakes, failing to see the real situation and outcomes. In my experience, even lifelong Zen practitioners ... even great Roshis and Lamas and Venerables ... can have the blinders on about some things, be self-decieving sometimes, trip and fall under some conditions, be all to human human beings who cannot see their own mistakes.

So ... it depends. In answer to your question: Yes, more sensitive ... yes, we can see and experience inimately the Great Web which holds us and is us all ... but only God and Buddhas can truly see all facets of the tangled web of conditions, choices, actions and effects which life presents.

But what of the other kind? The mistakes you can't see or don't want to see. The evil you do without knowing it?

By the way ... Karma (much like the criminal law) is really about our volitional, intentional acts, words and thoughts. We don't usually, in the west, get thrown in jail for things we did not intend to do, or were forced to do against our will (unless, perhaps, we intentionally looked the other way and allowed something to happen). So, in the case of Karma too, maybe we bear some liability for the mistakes we don't want to see, or intentionally did not see, or so irresponsibly do not see that it might as well be intentional (like your getting behind the wheel of a car when drinking, even if completely convinced you can make it home safely). Yet, not really for mistakes we could not see.

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: ATONEMENT / AT-ONE-MENT

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: ATONEMENT / AT-ONE-MENT

Thank you, Jundo. I really needed this. So hard to let go sometimes.
It often seems like I get it wrong more than I get it right. On this
forum, at home, at work, even in my own mind. You have inspired
me to make something beautiful of this day. Thanks.

Re: SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: ATONEMENT / AT-ONE-MENT

Thank you Jundo,
I felt much at home, particularly the last minute of your teisho ;-) I feel most of the time, a "mistake" is only a judgement of our mind, looking into its memories. This doesn't mean we shouldn't practice with our whole heart, the opposite is true. When we practice as good as we can (and ot as good as we think we can), we're not making mistakes.
Also atonement, well I'm not at home in english language, but I feel to atone for something, and especially when chanting the verse of atonement, means that we atone for what we've done in the past. Not only that we reflect but literally that we pay with suffering right now. This is true for the small self but much more for us all being just one, whatever bad karma I created, its paytime now.
_()_
Peter